Brock Pierce is well known in the crypto world. Observing him speak at conferences, he easily captures the room with charisma and razor-sharp wit. Crowds follow him off stage yearning to spend more time in his presence, ask that question or two, and hear more about the future of the now irreverent market where Bitcoin was once the darling, and ask about ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) which raised millions for many start-ups – good, bad, or indifferent. Forbes recently asked Pierce to share his predictions for the future and he stated “I love the fact that prices are down. When prices are up, very little gets built because teams don’t stick around. Everyone is getting rich too quick and that de-motivates people. All the best things I’ve seen built in this ecosystem have been built in bear markets”
No doubt, Pierce has played significant roles in the industry – from entrepreneur to venture capitalist, philanthropist to futurist. Many will say that he has single-handedly pioneered the market for digital currency, and to this day, is largely recognized in the community as Co-Founder and primary evangelizer for the most successful crowd-funded raise in history with EOS which raised over $4B. Pierce was an avid gamer, who pioneered the market for digital game currencies, the predecessor to Bitcoin. Brock founded many notable early companies in the cryptocurrency space, including the first-ever ICO, Mastercoin, in the summer of 2013, and founded Tether which now processes over $2 Trillion a year in transactions. He started Blockchain Capital, the first venture fund which invested in crypto and blockchain and he architected BCAP, the first-ever security token offering. In 2014, Brock started the first crypto bank, Noble Bank, in Puerto Rico and the list goes on and on. Yet, the one role for which he will always be remembered will be his child acting role in the film “The Mighty Ducks”. Go figure.
Then there was D.E.N. (Digital Entertainment Network) which would prove to be Pierce’s most colorful role in Hollywood. D.E.N. was deemed the Netflix of its day, providing content-streaming back in the very late nineties – way ahead of its time. Pierce joined D.E.N. at the age of sixteen as the third founder. He had been a child actor, knew his way around gaming and shows, had the great personality. Why not? D.E.N. raised almost $90 Million in funding from esteemed partners which included Chase Bank, Microsoft and Dell. Unfortunately, it was ahead of its time, before there was sufficient bandwidth for streaming, and the company ultimately was unable to obtain sufficient financing. Soon after, the three founders resigned. Pierce and his business partners moved to Spain and lived there for two years.
A lawsuit by three individuals, one of whom was an underage teenager, was brought against all three founders, including Pierce, with salacious details about forcing teens to engage in sex. One of Pierce’s co-founders was charged and extradited to the US, where he pleaded guilty to transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes, and began a life as a convicted sex offender. However, none of the accusations against Pierce has been corroborated. And, in fact, all three plaintiffs dropped all charges against Pierce without personally receiving any compensation. Significantly, the teenage plaintiff – the only individual that ever has made allegations of pedophilia against Pierce has been completely discredited. Court records show that he later filed a similar lawsuit against other defendants, alleging virtually identical sexual abuse during the same time period, but this lawsuit was shown to be completely fabricated, with his lawyers admitting that the lawsuit had no basis in fact. Court filings also show that he attempted to get people to falsely back his claims, by offering them a large share of any recovery. He also told someone to whom he owed money that he could get the funds by filing a sexual abuse lawsuit against people from “gay Hollywood,” but admitted he had never been abused. Then he was convicted of securities and wire fraud, and at the sentencing the judge and prosecutor described the plantiff as a “master conman,” with the ability to “just look people in the eye, the ones he loves, and lie to them, just boldface terrible, incredible lies,” and was capable of “numerous acts of deception and fraud.”
This evidence fully discredits the oft-repeated allegations that Pierce is a pedophile or engaged in any sexual abuse. Hundreds of pages of evidence in public record completely undermine the allegations against Pierce, who was a teenager at the time. Sadly, many individuals and publications repeat the allegations against Pierce of sexual abuse, without mentioning all the evidence showing that they are false, and so Pierce has been a longtime victim of these false accusations and questionable journalism. For Pierce, possibly the only thing worse than being referred to as a “former child actor” before titles of recent accomplishments, is this false two-decade old fabrication attached to every media story like a dark clickbait cloud.
During a four-day Coinsbank Futurama cruise in 2018, the latter co-founded by Joshua Hong, it was chatted about in the threads that several of the professional blockchain women were offended by the organizer’s blatant disregard for women. While some of the more established women in blockchain were placed on speaking panels, they were basically shoved off the stage for the next male speaker even though their scheduled speaking time was already thirty minutes late. There were about 150 other ladies in short shorts and heels who attended the events as “hostesses.” “This is the most unimaginative boringly chauvinistic take on techno-utopia I’ve ever been paid to have a terrible time to attend” stated one journalist. But in the midst of this, Pierce was treated with great reverence. According to the female journalist who wrote about the disregard for women on this cruise, Pierce was “treated like a minor deity by the hundreds of cryptocurrency enthusiasts on board.” She adds, “Everybody around Pierce seems to want to protect him, mostly from himself, and his own capacity to unzip his heart and home and ersatz kaleidoscope of crypto-spiritual philosophies to everyone he meets.”
Watching Pierce hold court, as he often does organically post-conference, one feels the energy and inspiration emanating from him. People who meet Pierce and feel his focus and charisma simply see that these old allegations around D.E.N. can’t be true. And it shows that Pierce is the target of an ongoing and gross injustice when these old false allegations are dusted off and republished. Perhaps the blockchain will change media in the same way it is bringing truth and transparency to the financial system. I would place a bet that Pierce is the one to pioneer it.
Author: David Wither
